NEW YORK - Tommy Sheehan, the Director of Strength and Conditioning since 2001, has been promoted to Director of Sports Performance in a rebranding and reorganization of Columbia Athletics strength and conditioning. The area will now be called Sports Performance. Sheehan will have oversight of the sports performance programming for 30 of Columbia’s 31 varsity sports programs.

“Tommy has been a vital part of our athletics program for many years. We are thrilled to promote him to the position of Director of Sports Performance,” Dr. M. Dianne Murphy, Director, Intercollegiate Athletics and Physical Education said. “Tommy’s knowledge of our student-athletes, and his understanding of state-of-the-art training and conditioning techniques for many different sports make him the perfect person for this new position within our athletics program.”

Well-known throughout the strength and conditioning profession, Sheehan was asked to produce an instructional DVD for the Cleveland Indians, on movement training in an off-season conditioning program. It was filmed at the Indians’ Jacobs Field and distributed to the players in the Cleveland system.

Sheehan first came to Columbia in Fall 1990 as a graduate assistant on the football staff, reuniting him with Columbia’s head coach at the time, Ray Tellier. Tellier had originally recruited the Buffalo, N.Y., native when he was head football coach at the University of Rochester. Sheehan spent three years on the Columbia staff, and earned a master’s in applied physiology.

He then joined the New York State Police as a physical training instructor before attending the State Police academy and becoming a New York State trooper. He left the police force and returned to Columbia as assistant strength and conditioning coach in 1996.

Sheehan is one of the finest offensive players in the University of Rochester’s gridiron history. An All-American as a junior and senior, he twice earned All-ECAC and all-conference honors. He ranks among the Yellowjackets’ all-time leaders in every receiving category, and topped the list at the completion of his playing career in receiving yardage for a game (189), season (835), and career (1,982). In 2005, he was inducted into Rochester’s Athletics Hall of Fame.

“Under Sheehan’s leadership I am confident that we will maximize our student-athlete sports performance,” Murphy said. “I have the utmost confidence that our sports performance area will continue their outstanding work with our student-athletes.”